PKL 2017 | Shabeer Bappu’s Super 10 earns Mumba win over the UP

Shabeer Bappu (13) assisted by captain Anup Kumar (8) recovered from two all-outs to secure a memorable 37-34 win for the U Mumbai against the UP Yoddha. Rishank Devadiga was the top scorer on the day for the hosts, playing their first game at home, but it eventually proved insufficient in the end.

U Mumba skipper invited home side UP Yoddha to raid first and his counterpart Nitin Tomar drew first blood with a successful raid, with a running hand touch, to open the scoring for the hosts. Rishank Devadiga followed his skipper’s shoes and inflicted a Super Raid in his very first raid, when Shabeer Bappu had a brain fade moment as he failed to grasp Devadiga’s hand as it was crossing the line, to open a 4-0 lead for the Yoddha. Anup Kumar pulled two successful raids for the visitors with two brilliant toe touches and managed to reduce the deficit only to 3. A sturdy U Mumba defence forced the Yoddha’s into a do-or-die raid but Devadiga yet again grabbed a point to as the hosts continued to dominate the proceedings.

Kashiling Adake returned the favour with a point of his own, in the very next attempt, but faltered in a do-or-die raid when he was pinned down by a resolute Yoddha defence before the home team inflicted the first all-out of the match to take the score to 12-6. Rajesh Narwal stopped Adake in his tracks before Devadiga raided the U Mumba half successfully once again to extend their lead to 8 points. The visitors finally got hold of Devadiga and Shabeer Bappu followed it up with a successful raid to bring some respite for his team. The visitors looked to find their feet back in the game when Surender Singh blocked Mahesh Goud and Shabeer Bappu grabbed two touch points, in a do or die raid, to take the score to 12-15 at the stroke of half time.

Devadiga’s heroics in vain as U Mumba register a slender win

The second half resumed with only two Yoddha players on the mat and Shabeer Bappu added to their troubles by reducing the team to a single player before showing his defensive skills and dashing Narwal out of the mat to bring the match back on level terms by inflicting an all-out on the home team. Bappu then managed to replicate his two-point raid, by a matter of millimeters, to put U Mumba in the lead for the first time in the game. However, his counterpart Devadiga upped the ante and scored three points in two consecutive raids to snatch the lead away from the visitors. While Shabeer Bappu retaliated with a touch point, Rishank Devadiga wiped out three U Mumba players, for the second time in the game, to ease to a Super 10. With the game in the balance, U Mumba committed three back to back errors which led to the visitors suffering their second all-out of the game with the Yoddha taking a 30-26 lead.

Darshan Kadian, playing his second PKL game, pulled two back with a brilliant raid before the visitors inflicted the second all-out on the home team to take a 4-point lead in the dying minutes of the game. But keeping with the trend of the game, the hosts launched yet another comeback with the brilliant Rishank Devadiga getting the dangerous Shabeer Bappu off the mat before Darshan Kadian followed the latter on the bench after an unsuccessful raid leaving the Yoddha trailing by just 2 points. However, U Mumba came good when they pinned Rishank Devadiga to the mat and in turn revived Shabeer Bappu who raided the home team successfully to take the score to 37-33 with 50 seconds remaining in the game. Shabeer Bappu then ran down the clock as U Mumba completed a successful comeback to register a 37-34 victory.